Having the skill to create a great piece of vector art is one talent, but being able to combine this into creating a captivating poster design is another. Consider the elements of the poster... being able to grab our initial attention, and holding it until you read all it's detail. The poster needs to match the tone and the purpose of the poster in order to sell you the idea or product.
Inspiring Poster Art Designs
Today I'll to show you five artists which use vector in their poster designs to not only inspire you, but give you some things to consider should you wish to create an effective poster. Check out five pieces of poster/promotional art by each of them to get your creative juices going!
Poster Design Elements
There are several characteristics of a poster design one might consider when producing their own:
Image focused designs give you more than just the information about the event. They often feature elaborate illustrations, which help set the tone of the product. You get an impression of the style of product from the initial glace at the poster. However the drawback is that without any bold typography, a potential customer may “judge a book by its cover."
Typographically strong designs sell the product from a longer distance, therefore increasing the possible audience simply based on distance. Being able to sell your product from a distance with key words or names can however be limiting. If the words don't relate to the audience on first glance, then potential customer may not want to come closer to find out more. Using key limited words that strike the viewer are paramount.
Mixing both elements can work well, however it's important to get the correct balance. If the poster focuses too much on the illustration, then it lacks room for information. You also need to consider balancing the palette of text with the palette of the illustration(s).
Five Artists and Twenty Five Posters
Let's take a look at some artists that get this balance right and create outstanding posters.
Artist: BoneDaddy Studios
BoneDaddy Studios has a unique illustration style, which mixes his detailed pin up girls, Tiki and Art Nouveau elements to set the tone. Full of bright colors, stylized typography, his posters certainly grab your attention and make you want to learn more!
StrongStuff is one of those artists who pulls inspiration from retro posters of the past and mixes them with modern movies to give a creatively unique take on film promotion. Mixing vintage limited palettes and strong bold shapes creates his signature style.
As a viewer you're able to identify the movie without looking at the words and this is a great talent to utilize. With a tongue-in-cheek edge, he's an artist full of strong pieces, which make you smile and connect straight away with the art he produces.
I'm a huge fan of Roberlan, not only does he mix impressive text art design with retro-kitsch illustrations, but he's a vector obsessed fan! His mock posters selling vector products are cheeky, are charming and are always an inspiration. If you're a follower of his work, you're often treated to sneak previews of his workflow and text treatments. If only Adobe got him on their marketing team!
Collaps09 creates many attention grabbing pieces, which mix bold silhouettes with stylish typography. The typography takes your initial attention and allows you to read the information from a distance... you come closer to see more information and see the finer details. The use of silhouettes and a limited color palette help set the tone.
Sebdesign mixes raster and vector elements in his typography centric poster compositions. This style of poster art is typically seen in music events and clubs, where the product you're selling is the venue rather than the artist.
Everything from the font used to the palette will help associate the style of music with the venue. The bold letters of the musical talent headliners are used to attract people to find out more and in turn promote the venue itself. Sebdesign has nailed this and pulls it off with style.
Whether creating for a client or for your own amusement (and others!), there are many principles to consider in poster art design. Today's inspiration article has given you some effective posters to ponder and hopefully lit a creative fire in you to make some posters. These high quality posters leave you with some insights to consider when creating your own poster designs, such as: font choice, layout, mix of illustration and text, how to grab attention, mixing your style with the product, and more.
Additional Poster Design Inspiration
If you'd like more poster design inspiration, then here are a few roundups of awesome posters, some of these aren't vector focused, but still great to peruse: